True Friendship

"In friendship are joined honor and charm, truth and joy, sweetness and good-will, affection and action. And all these take their beginning from Christ, advance through Christ, and are perfected in Christ. Therefore, not too steep or unnatural does the ascent appear from Christ, as the inspiration of the love by which we love our friend, to Christ giving himself to us as our Friend for us to love, so that charm may follow upon charm, sweetness upon sweetness and affection upon affection."

"What happiness, what security, what joy to have someone to whom you dare to speak on terms of equality as to another self; one to whom you need have no fear to confess your failings; one to whom you can unblushingly make known what progress you have made in the spiritual life; one to whom you can entrust all the secrets of your heart and before whom you can place all your plans!"

"Spiritual friendship, that is true friendship, should be desired, not for consideration of any worldly advantage or for any extrinsic cause, but from the dignity of its own nature and the feelings of the human heart, so that it's growth and reward, is nothing other than itself."

"Worldly friendship, which is born of desire for advantage or possessions...

"Worldly friendship, which is born of desire for advantage or possessions, is always full of deceit and intrigue; it contains nothing certain, nothing constant, nothing secure and keeps changing with circumstances always with a view of what it stands to gain. So, it has been said: 'He is a fair-weather friend, and he will not be there for you when you are in trouble. Take away his hope of profit, and immediately he will cease to be your friend."

"It is quite false to call 'friends' those who only share a harmony of vices...

"It is quite false to call 'friends' those who only share a harmony of vices. Note that, he who does not love, is not a friend. But a person does not love another person if he loves what is wrong. The psalm says: He who loves what is wrong, does not love at all, but hates his own soul." But then, one who does not love his own soul cannot love someone else. So, two people who share with one another only a harmony of vices, glory in the name of friendship but are deceived."

"More are to be received into the embrace of charity than into the embrace of friendship. We are compelled by the law of charity to receive in the embrace of love not only our friends but also our enemies. But only those do we call friends to whom we can fearlessly entrust our heart and all its secrets."

"A friend is a guardian of love or, as some might say, a guardian of the spirit itself. Since it is fitting that my friend be a guardian of the love we share, and the guardian of my own spirit, so as to preserve all its secrets in faithful silence, let him, as far as he can, cure and endure such defects as he may observe in me; let him rejoice with his friend in his joys and weep with him in his sorrows, and feel as his own all that his friend experiences."

About This Web Site

Our website intends to answer the needs of men and women discerning a call from God to a be a Trappist monk or nun. If what you see and read here awakens in you a desire to follow Christ in the silence and solitude of a Trappist monastery, know that this is God working in your heart in response to our prayers. Please contact us and be assured that we are ready to offer you our love and assistance in your discernment process.